The Beijing Consensus on the future of global agriculture and rural areas: a blueprint for action

In the coming century agriculture and rural development will face significant challenges as a result of urbanisation and its impacts to food supply, trade liberalisation, resource competition and degradation, and critical need for more investment in research and technology. This report - the Beijing Consensus - provides a framework for governments and development organisations to meet these challenges and set the agenda for future food and agriculture policy. The consensus is the result of active debates and discussions between by top experts in agriculture, economics, and the environment.The main conclusions are:agricultural production growth in developing countries has strong, positive effects on non-agricultural growth. Governments should give priority to public expenditures on public goods for rural areas, such as roads, information technology and other infrastructure, research, extension, health and primary educationreducing obstacles to farmers to integrate into modern supply chains is critical, as globalisation could lead to a de-linking of food consumption from local production and create a risk of excluding small farmers from growth opportunitiesrapid growth in the non-farm rural economy is crucial for supporting non- or marginal farmerstrade liberalisation must be complimented with enhanced domestic competitiveness through policy and institutional reformagricultural productivity must be increased, satisfying consumer demand for new products, quality, and safety. Increased water productivity will be a critical factor to achieve increased agricultural productivityprofound reform of research and development institutions is required in many countriesa strong agriculture science base is both urgent and essentialwomen need to have rights and access to knowledge, technology and physical, financial and social capitalmarginalised peoples and areas require greater access to markets. Combining investment in income earning opportunities with social safety nets is called for in accordance with basic human rightsthere is a need to develop and implement agricultural technologies, practices and policies that reduce the impact of the agricultural sector on climate, whilst also reducing its vulnerability to climate changepublic investment, regulation and financial incentives, in association with strong institutions and good governance, are needed to ensure sustainable flows of eco-system services.